Legal Consciousness, Rights Rhetoric, and African American Identity Formation in Massachusetts, 1641-1855 Scott Ah Ncock University of New Hampshire, Durham
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University of New Hampshire University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository Doctoral Dissertations Student Scholarship Fall 1999 "The al w will make you smart": Legal consciousness, rights rhetoric, and African American identity formation in Massachusetts, 1641-1855 Scott aH ncock University of New Hampshire, Durham Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation Recommended Citation Hancock, Scott, ""The al w will make you smart": Legal consciousness, rights rhetoric, and African American identity formation in Massachusetts, 1641-1855" (1999). Doctoral Dissertations. 2094. https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation/2094 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Scholarship at University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 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A, University of New Hampshire, 1995 DISSERTATION Submitted to the University of New Hampshire in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Early American History September, 1999 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 9943 997 Copyright 1999 by Hancock, Scott All rights reserved. UMI Microform 9943997 Copyright 1999, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED c 1999 Scott Hancock Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. This dissertation has been examined and approved. lAl issertation Director, W. Jeffrey Bolster ssociate Professor of History -"v—\ c ^ ^— ,— '—t _______________________ Lucy E. Salyer, Associate Professor of History . William Harris, Associate Professor of History Funso Afolavan, Assistant Professor of History - ■ ■ y V*— 1 '■/ ---------------------- Ehga 5i. Gouhi; Assistant Professor of History Date Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. To My Lord Jesus Christ who has made life's trek vibrant and sweet through my lovely bride, Patricia Larue, and my providers of joy, Shannon, Ian and Isaac and finally, to W. Jeffrey Bolster, whose encouragement and instruction proved invaluable iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation was completed with the invaluable aid of a Graduate School Dissertation Fellowship from the University of New Hampshire, and the Mary Catherine Mooney Fellowship provided by the Boston Athenaeum. In addition, the Gunst Wilcox dissertation research, granted by the History Department of the University of New Hampshire, and the University of New Hampshire's Summer Research Fellowship for Teaching Assistants, provided funds at key times. v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION ............................... _ ................. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS....................................................................... _ ................. v LIST OF TABLES............................................................................................................ vfi LIST OF FIGURES....................................................................................................... -vin ABSTRACT ............................................._. ....................................................................... ix CHAPTER PAGE INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................1 I. BECOMING AFRICAN AMERICAN: BUILDING BOUNDARIES OF SELF, 1641-1783 .............................................................................. 20 II. DELIVERING JUSTICE AND SHAPING IDENTITY: THE LAW AND THE FORMATION OF BLACK IDENTITY IN BOSTON, 1783-1820 ........................................................................................................ 81 III. LIMITS AND POSSIBILITIES OF LEGAL CONSCIOUSNESS, 1822-1855......................................................................129 IV. FROM "NO COUNTRY!" TO OUR COUNTRY: AFRICAN AMERICANS DEFINING THEMSELVES AND THE BOUNDARIES OF RIGHTS AND CITIZENSHIP, 1773-1855 ............... 181 V. THE ELUSIVE BOUNDARIES OF BLACKNESS: IDENTITY FORMATION IN ANTEBELLUM BOSTON ........................ 218 VI CONCLUSION...............................................................................................................255 BIBLIOGRAPHY.................................................................................................................. 261 vi Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. LIST OF TABLES TABLE PAGE Table 1: Success rates in interracial court cases, 1818-1820.................................100 Table 2: Frequency of J.P. court appearances by black Bostonians................105 Table 3: Prosecuting BlackDefendants......................................................................... 109 Table 4: African Meeting House Pastors, 1832-1841................................................164 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Reproduction of Gorham's record book......... viii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT "THE LAW WILL MAKE YOU SMART": LEGAL CONSCIOUSNESS, RIGHTS RHETORIC, AND AFRICAN AMERICAN IDENTITY FORMATION IN MASSACHUSETTS, 1641-1855 by Scott Hancock University of New Hampshire, September, 1999 In 1834, one of the informal leaders of Boston's black community rebuked a black defendant in court, declaring "the law will make you smart." This dissertation uncovers how African Americans in Massachusetts did indeed become 'smart' through an ongoing engagement with the law for over two hundred years. While the law could be oppressive, the accessibility of the legal system in Massachusetts enabled black women and men, slave and free, to learn to use the law in efforts to exercise some control over their daily lives. In the deteriorating racial atmosphere during the first half of the nineteenth century, the law remained one of the few arenas in which African Americans had any hope of experiencing the professed egalitarian ideals of the new republic. But the law also instructed African Americans about the value of establishing and maintaining individual legal boundaries between themselves and others, black and white. Through their engagement with the law, African Americans developed a legal consciousness that fostered a sense of themselves as autonomous individuals. After emancipation, that legal consciousness combined with a legal rights ideology to help define what it meant to be African American. That legal rights ideology eventually became an integral part of free black identity when African American leaders, who had expressed little identification with the new nation in the first decades after the American Revolution, began to explicitly identify black men and women as American in response to attempts by some whites to deny African Americans an American identity and citizenship. Black leaders anchored their argument in the Declaration of Independence